19,839 Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Purchased by St. Clair Advisors LLC

St. Clair Advisors LLC bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 19,839 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,421,000. Blackstone accounts for about 1.0% of St. Clair Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 18,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 1,536 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 156.9% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 33,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,699,000 after buying an additional 20,188 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,840 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Investment Consultants LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 1,617 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $146.69 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $107.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.41, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a 50 day moving average of $137.25 and a 200 day moving average of $161.43.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.93 dividend. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This represents a 5.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 1,660,538 shares of company stock valued at $24,981,930. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.